It was finish better than 58th place or go home for Tiger Woods this week at The Barclays, the first of the four FedEx Cup events. Tiger entered the week 112th in the standings, and to advance to next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship, he needed enough points to improve his position to the top-100. After he kicked off the tournament with a 65 for a share of the lead, he blamed his putter for his disappointing second and third rounds and dropped off the leaderboard.
Whenever you’re paired with Tiger Woods, it’s a given you’ll have to to deal with the chaos and added distractions of the Tiger Woods Fan Club.
So do the guys playing on holes adjacent to Tiger.
When Tiger’s group was on the fourth green at Ridgewood on Friday, Steve Stricker and Ernie Els were on the tee of the adjacent ninth hole. The marshals were ogling over Tiger and wandered into the line of sight of the players teeing off the ninth. “Hey, marshals!” someone from the tee yelled. The embarrassed marshals quickly scurried into the crowd.
As the twosome walked past the cluster of marshals, their caddies barked, “Pay attention!” Els, who was understandably peeved, scowled and snapped, “There are other groups on the f$%^*g golf course.”
Hey, marshals, it doesn’t feel very good to get yelled at, huh?
In his 14 years on Tour, Tiger Woods had never played in the first group on a Thursday. Until today. And he enjoyed putting on the impeccable greens.
Just three days after his divorce was finalized, Tiger Woods shot a six-under 65, his lowest round of the year, in the opening round of The Barclays for a share of the early clubhouse lead with Ryan Palmer. He only missed one fairway (and by, like, 2 paces) and two greens. (It’s going to take a lot more than one good round for me to say, “TIGER’S BACK!” Perhaps if he’s still atop the leaderboard come Sunday, then it can be put under consideration.) After Woods left the scoring room, he walked out to begin a series of interviews. The first was for radio. But he stopped to sign an autograph for a young boy who snuck up next to him. When asked if it was his best round of the year (not just scoring-wise), he said, “Absolutely.”
It’s been two days since the Tiger Woods-Elin Nordegren divorce was finalized and both have spoken to the media. The tight-lipped Elin gushed to People about her side of the story, which hits stands on Friday. And on Wednesday afternoon when Tiger finished playing in the pro-am at Ridgewood, the site of The Barclays, he chatted with the media. As he walked off the green and to the interview area, he stopped for about five minutes to sign autographs for fans.
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